I'll Be Home for Christmas
by JoshGleek24
Summary: For Alyce. While the rest of his family spend Christmas vacation in Columbus, Rory returns to Ohio but finds himself scared to confront the friends he'd lost contact with and feels forgotten. Meanwhile, Joe is tired of being treated like furniture and is lovesick over Kitty. When the two old friends reunite, they attempt to brighten up each others Christmases.


**'I'll Be Home for Christmas'**

**For Alyce. Merry Christmas!**

_**A/N: **__This fic takes place in Christmas 2012; 6 months after Rory left McKinley and returned to Ireland. So in this timeline, Brittany and Finn are both in Lima at McKinley, but the choir room is still with New Directions even though they lost Sectionals_

Rory gazed out of the train window as familiar buildings and places began to come into focus from his unforgettable year in America on a student exchange program. Indeed, he had returned to Lima, Ohio to spend a week of his winter vacation in his second home. A thick blanket of glistening snow covered the city making it resemble the sort of dreamy christmas in an animated TV special. As _I'll Be Home for Christmas _began to play through his headphones, Rory found it creepily accurate to his current thoughts. He couldn't wait to see his old friends again after 6 months away from them. While most of them had graduated and left Lima, Finn was still there, as were Sam, Artie, Tina, Blaine, Joe… and Sugar.

Things had ended between him and Sugar on an awkward note, and she barely seemed upset at his departure seeming to quickly move back to Artie. But Rory was determined not to let any awkward atmosphere between him and his ex-girlfriend ruin his stay. However, his excitement was beginning to be shadowed by nerves as he travelled closer to Lima. What if his old friends had changed? What if they wouldn't like him anymore? Rory was just the same old, awkward Irish kid (perhaps with a few extra inches of height), but the others had probably matured.

His thoughts were interrupted as the train grinded to a halt, and an intercom declared him to be at 'Lima Central Station'. Feeling slightly flustered, he gathered his bags and shakily stepped out into the cold air. Icy snowflakes hit his skin as he began to trudge across the familiar train station, where he'd waved off Rachel Berry as she embarked to New York. As he walked out into the station's parking lot, he heard a high pitched squeal. Before he could turn around, an ecstatic girl had wrapped her arms round his neck, yelling "You're back!"

"Brittany! It's so great to see you!" Rory exclaimed happily, returning her hug.

"Aha, I've missed having no idea what you ever say!" she laughed, before leading Rory over to her car. Rory had arranged to stay with the Pierces over the holiday once again, and had missed the baffling insanity of Brittany. As they drove to the Pierce household, he received a detailed and bizaar recap on what had happened in Lima since he'd left.

"Tina and Mike broke up, no-one really knows what happened to Sam and Mercedes, then there was a week where Blaine cheated on Kurt, Finn and Rachel reunited and then broke up and me and Santana broke up, but I'm with Sam now. Also Tina has an Asian assistant and is kind of a bitch now, we all dressed up as superheroes and a new girl, Marley had a random nap during Sectionals so we lost"

"Umm… Okay? Interesting" Rory stuttered awkwardly, wondering how his group of friends managed so much drama with each other in just a few months. "What about Joe and Sugar?"

"Oh, they've not really done anything this year. Both kinda disappeared" Brittany shrugged. "I think Sugar is with Artie, but I'm not sure"

Rory tried not to show the disappointment in his face, but couldn't help but let out an audible sigh.

"Me and Finn are organising a surprise return for you tomorrow in glee club! He thought you could sing a song for everybody" Brittany buzzed

"Yeah sure, that would be great" Rory said unconvincingly. Brittany's recap on McKinley had made him scared that everyone would have forgotten him, what with having such apparently thrilling lives. As he lay in his familiar bed that night, thoughts flooded his mind of him freezing up in front of the club or his friends saying "Who?" when he walked onto the stage. Time could not pass more slowly that night for the awkward Irish teen.

* * *

"Okay, okay everybody! Listen up!" Finn exclaimed, clapping his hands to gain the glee club's attention. "Today, we have an old friend of New Directions returning…"

"Is it Mike? Mercedes?" Artie interrupted.

"Please god, tell me Quinn is back!" Kitty cried, holding her breath.

"Jake, how about your bro?" Ryder asked, but Jake just shook his head.

As the club continued to shout out guesses at the surprise returnee, Rory's heart sank more and more. He stood outside the choir room, wearing clothes in his normal green colour becoming more and more anxious.

"Is Rachel returning to put all of you 'newbies' to shame?" Tina suggested smugly.

"Stop, stop, stop! To answer you, you're all wrong!" Finn laughed.

"Then whose coming back Finn?" Sam enquired.

Brittany leapt up excitedly from her seat, not being able to take the build-up any longer "The amazing returning former member of New Directions is the guy no-one understands! The guy with the weird obsession with green and clovers! The guy who only ever seems to sing Michael Buble songs! RORY FLANAGAN!" she grandly announced.

The seniors burst into applause, thrilled to see their old friend again and the others followed, awaiting the mystery man's entrance. But as the applause died down, no-one entered and Finn made a puzzled expression.

"He must have not heard us!" Finn reassured the others, running to look outside for him and call him in. But the McKinley hallway was empty, with no trace of Rory.

**_A/N: Mystery! I know not a lot happened this chapter, but more is coming very soon (Chapter 2 is already half-written)_**


End file.
